Kooks will always be among our legislators

They respect federal law when it comes to marijuana but not so much when it comes to guns.

I would suggest that you send an e-mail to your legislators pointing out that the whole thing is, shall we say, très bizarre. But then, they may be tempted to print it out ... which might be illegal under another bill floating around the state Capitol. (House Bill 2283 imposes limits on printing government documents that contain foreign language.)

It's Week 3 of the first regular session of Arizona's 51st Legislature, and our leaders are up to their eyeballs in important state business ...

Well, no, there's no bill to close campaign-finance loopholes that leave voters in the dark.

And, no, I haven't seen any bills aimed at making it more difficult for those who suffer from serious mental illness to get guns. At least, none that has a chance of getting heard (read: Republican bills). But there's a push on to repeal the state's medical-marijuana law to comply with federal drug laws.

Meanwhile, we have a pair of proposals that would make it illegal -- a felony, even, in some circumstances -- to enforce federal gun laws.

Under the Smith/Ward plan, government employees, judges and even jurors would be barred from enforcing federal gun laws, and if any federal officials tried to do so in the sovereign state of Arizona, they'd be guilty of a felony.

The bill is endorsed by a powerhouse lineup that includes Judy Burges, Carl Seel and Kelly Townsend. It's scheduled for a hearing before the Senate Public Safety Committee at 2 p.m. today. Seriously, it is.

Ward is the Lake Havasu City Republican who replaced Ron Gould. I had hopes that she, a doctor, might resist the gravitational pull of kookville.

Smith, it appears, long ago succumbed. This Maricopa Republican/talent-agency director is perhaps best known for his ongoing attempts to raise private funds to build a border fence and public funds to reimburse Russell Pearce for his non-existent recall expenses. And, oh yeah, his failed attempt late last year to oust Andy Tobin as House speaker.

Smith didn't return a call to explain how his gun bill squares with the U.S. Constitution or how his bill requiring students to recite the Pledge of Allegiance squares with the U.S. Constitution.

Flagstaff Rep. Bob Thorpe has a similar bill (HB 2467) to require high-school students to take a loyalty oath before graduation. But he, at least, had the good sense to make the oath optional after talking to fellow legislators.

"I'm a brand-new legislator," he told me. "I never held office before, so it's kind of a learning process for me."

Smith, meanwhile, is in his third year.

His say-the-pledge-or-else bill (HB 2284) would be tacked on to a Pearce law passed in 2007, wherein our leaders dictated that every school must display an American flag in every classroom and that said flags must be at least 2 by 3 feet and made in the USA. (The Legislature, of course, provided no money to buy all those flags.)

Now comes Smith's attempt to further boost patriotism by requiring children to pledge their allegiance every day. It appears to be going nowhere, as Tobin hasn't assigned it to any committees.

Perhaps that's payback. Or perhaps the speaker simply appreciates the irony here. True patriotism -- not to mention a real appreciation for what it means to be an American -- requires that Smith's bill be dispatched.

So does the Constitution.

The U.S. Supreme Court in 1943 held that it is unconstitutional to compel schoolchildren to say the pledge and salute the flag. The First Amendment, the justices said, includes the right not to speak.

"If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion or other matters of opinion or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein," the justices said.

Seventy years later, if there is any fixed star in our local constellation of leading lights, it's that kooks will always be among us.